Unwritten Hearts
by reader13lovesbooks
Summary: A Career-in-training is not immune to celebrity crushes. Over the years, Cato grows up alongside Ember Abernathy on different sides of the television camera. A prequel of sorts to The Sweetest Mockery. Follows Cato from childhood to the beginning of the 74th Hunger Games.


**This oneshot was written for ForeverTeamEdward13, the winner of my latest drawing over at The Sweetest Mockery. The prompt was to expand on an instance in SM, when Cato mentioned how he saw Ember on TV from time to time as they were growing up and he developed a bit of a crush on her.**

 **For those who have not read SM, the premise of that fic is that both Haymitch and Maysilee won the 50th Hunger Games, and they ended up getting married and having kids together. The main character of SM is their middle child Ember, who goes into the 74th Games with her younger brother Cedric instead of Katniss and Peeta. SM is mostly about her relationship with Cato and her developing friendships with the other tributes of the 74th Games after they escape from the arena. It's not entirely necessary to read SM before this oneshot; you could even describe this short story as a prequel of sorts to SM. But of course, I encourage everyone to hop on over to read SM after this, since SM is my main work-in-progress.**

 **Note: ADD = After Dark Days. Like how we use A.D. to indicate the date, I decided to use ADD to indicate date in Panem.**

* * *

 _December 57 ADD_

He doesn't even remember the first time he sees Ember Abernathy. After all, Cato only just turned two, and she's just some boring baby on the TV screen. He's more interested in his new toy soldiers, and he blissfully ignores his father ranting about how pathetic it is that some Outer District scum won the Games this year, and now they have to watch the Victor from District 11, the second worst district, fumbling along on his Victory Tour stop in District 12, the worst district. Then his father shifts to ranting about the A-ber-na-thees and how they're force-fed their apparent fairy tale lives twice a year.

Cato briefly looks up at the television. He doesn't understand what his father is so angry about. All they're showing right now is a squirmy, squishy baby who doesn't even look like she can sit up yet. Cato goes back to playing.

* * *

 _June 61 ADD_

The Abernathys are featured every summer and winter, at the beginning of the Hunger Games and the Victory Tour, respectively. But Cato doesn't really start to pay attention to Ember Abernathy until she's three, he's five, and she's somehow managed to smear ice cream all over her older brother on live national television.

Cato bursts out laughing. If he ever did that to Ty, _his_ brother would murder him. Ashton Abernathy, on the other hand, while looking very chagrined and irritated, manages a grin. Then he retaliates by pulling Ember into a bear hug, refusing to let the squealing girl go as the ice cream also smudges onto her clothes. Lorraine Abernathy is laughing at them both, and their parents look on indulgently.

Cato's father calls the whole lot of them an embarrassment.

The next time Cato gets an ice cream cone—a rare treat—he has to try hard to resist the urge to dump it on Tiberius's head.

* * *

 _December 61 ADD_

That winter, the Abernathys are proudly showing off a newborn Cedric. The cameras show Ember pouting in a corner. When the interviewer questions her, she sulks about how her parents only pay attention to the baby nowadays, how her siblings prefer to play with him, and even how her own friends want to see Cedric first thing whenever they visit.

"I'll play with you," Cato volunteers, alone in the living room.

Ember, who can't hear him, doesn't respond.

* * *

 _June 62 ADD_

By the time summer comes around, Ember seems to have developed an attachment to her new brother. She's all smiles now, happily holding baby Cedric and reluctant to let anyone else take him.

 _"I'm trying to teach him how to say my name, but he just babbles right now,_ " she informs the interviewer as she gently pokes Cedric's chubby cheeks and makes faces at him.

Cato doesn't see any more than that before his father drags him away to train, scolding him for wasting time on _that family._

* * *

 _December 62 ADD_

The last half-year has been terrible. Cato has begun training at the Academy with the rest of his age group. He quickly stands out—because of his father, because of his size, because of his advanced combat skills, due both to natural prowess and to Father's extra-early training.

The Academy's instructors push him that much harder for it, telling him that he has to live up to his family name.

His peers hate him for it, green-eyed with jealousy and full of spite. Every so often they'll try to gang up on him, but Cato proves again and again that he's better than them and not just in one-on-one combat. Still, it's tiring, and Cato doesn't think he likes being the best if it means he's so alone all the time.

When he tries to tell Father, his father sneers at him. "What do you care for the opinion of your inferiors? They won't be in the arena with you. This is what it costs to be a Victor. Don't let me see you crying about something so pathetic again. Or crying period."

So shortly after his seventh birthday, Cato learns to never cry.

As usual, the Abernathys feature during the District 12 stop of the Victory Tour. For some reason or other, Ember ends up bursting into tears at one point. But her father doesn't scold her for it. Instead, Haymitch Abernathy picks her up and soothes her until the tears dry and she's giggling again, as if nothing happened in the first place.

There's a peculiar feeling of want and envy in Cato's chest.

* * *

 _June 63 ADD_

Father is confident that someone named Enobaria will win the Games this year. So confident, he's offered to mentor this year—services that Attilus Wolfwood does not offer lightly. And with Father gone to the Capitol, Mother is a lot more lenient about allowing him and his siblings to watch television.

Tiberius and Vespasia are only interested in watching when Father, one of the tributes from Two, or even someone from another Career district is onscreen. But the instant the cameras change focus, his brother and sister are out the door to practice beating each other up.

It's good for Cato, It means they won't be there to watch him watching Ember playing with her brother at their parents' feet, as Haymitch and Maysilee Abernathy are interviewed about their tributes, who are so scrawny and weak that they won't last two seconds at the Cornucopia.

"She's a cute girl, isn't she?" Mother remarks from the sofa behind him.

Cato pretends he doesn't know what she's talking about.

* * *

 _December 63 ADD_

As predicted, Enobaria won this year, so the Victory Tour is supposed to be all about her. She greets the Abernathys in Twelve, as is the custom for every Victor, but she doesn't look all that pleased about it. Ember is staring up suspiciously at the older girl. Enobaria notices, and the camera catches her grinning down at the six-year-old, baring her teeth—the teeth that gained her renown in the Capitol and infamy in the Districts, for tearing out someone's throat.

Instead of cowering behind her older siblings, Ember scowls and sticks out her tongue.

Funny. Cato's never liked Enobaria all that much, either.

One of the reporters must have gotten tired of Enobaria's preening, because she decides to chat with Ember for a few minutes. The conversation turns to two-year-old Cedric, and that's when Ember begins gushing. _"Everyone says it's too early, but I_ know _I'm right! I know that Ced's started learning how to read."_

 _"But isn't he still having trouble talking?"_

 _"That's not because he can't talk but because he doesn't want to,"_ Ember insists. _"But he_ wants _to read, so he's doing it. He's really smart. He's going to be one of the smartest people in the world one day."_ And she smiles, a would-be toothy smile if it weren't for her two missing front teeth.

Cato really, really, really likes that smile.

* * *

 _June 64 ADD_

The entire Abernathy clan is ashen-faced this summer, with every reporter in the Capitol desperate to snag a conversation with one of them. After all, it's not every day that twelve-year-old Ashton Abernathy gets reaped for the Games.

"What a loser," says fifteen-year-old Tiberius. The Reaping recaps are playing, and Ashton is visibly trying not to tremble as he climbs onstage. "If I were in the Games this year, he'd be dead meat in seconds."

Ember and her little brother are with their parents on the stage. The prematurely grave expression on her face makes it obvious that she knows—to a degree, at least—exactly what's going on, that her older brother is in bigger trouble than she can comprehend, that the Golden Age of the Abernathys has drastically darkened.

Cato tries and fails to imagine how she's feeling. Both Tiberius and Vespasia would be raring to go into the Games at Ashton's age, not turning whiter than paper like the blond boy. And both Ty and Ves can be really annoying, so if they were going, part of him would be saying good riddance.

Still, he wishes he could do something about that sad look on Ember's face, as if she's already planning to attend her brother's funeral. He much prefers it when she's laughing and getting ice cream all over her brother.

One unexpected bonus of Ashton Abernathy's Reaping is that the rest of his family shows up on TV a lot more often that summer, including Ember. She manages to keep up her smile most of the time in front of the cameras, but Cato can tell it's forced. It's only ever real when she looks down at Cedric, who's too young to be interviewed but who's usually with her anyway, and pats his dark curls.

Cato doesn't like that fake smile.

The pool of tributes continues to winnow down, but Ashton Abernathy remains, and interviews with his family skyrocket.

 _"Ash is going to win,"_ Ember tells the interviewer.

 _"How do you know?"_

 _"Because he's my brother."_

Cato puzzles over that answer for a long time. He wouldn't have such confidence in Tiberius winning the Games simply because he's his brother. For the first (but by no means the last) time in his life, Cato wishes he knew what went on inside Ember Abernathy's head.

Ashton wins. In the interviews following the Games, Ember has a huge, relieved smile on her face, but it's also tainted with sadness. Why is she sad? Her brother won. Her brother's alive. What is there to be sad about?

As Ashton Abernathy's problems become publicized over time, Cato learns the answer.

* * *

 _December 64 ADD_

The Abernathys come to District 2 for Ashton's Victory Tour. Father and Mother attend the party hosted for them, but Cato and his siblings have to stay behind. When Cato tries to sneak out, Ty and Ves catch him.

Cato is seething when their parents finally return home, and Mother unties him from the bottom stair railing. He seeths even more when the party is finally broadcast, and Ember Abernathy looks every bit as downcast as he expected and feared.

 _What were you going to do about it anyway, if you had gone?_ Cato doesn't know.

* * *

 _June 65 ADD_

Everyone at the Capitol is so busy talking about new fan-favorite Finnick Odair that the Abernathys barely show up on TV. When they finally do, Cato notices that Ashton arguably looks worse than he did in the arena, that Haymitch and Maysilee's smiles are forced, that Lorraine isn't even trying to smile, that Cedric is exceedingly quiet (then again, Cato doesn't think he's ever heard the three-year-old talk), and that Ember looks mad. Mad at Ashton, mad at her parents, mad at Lorraine, mad at the interviewer, who wisely decides not to ask her many questions.

For a family with three Victors, whose wealth is probably greater than the entirety of the Outer Districts' combined, they don't seem very happy.

The camera catches Ember's burning blue eyes before switching shots.

* * *

 _December 65 ADD_

A wonderful distraction during the last few months came in the form of Cato's new baby sister. His father glares at him whenever he "wastes time" playing with Laelia instead of training, but Cato, with his mother's support, manages to get away with it for the most part. When it's so obvious that he's Lae's favorite of her three siblings, he's not going to give it up.

The Capitol reporters at Twelve must have been really excited about getting shots of Finnick Odair and Ashton Abernathy together, the two most recent Victors and the youngest ever. The broadcast of the party is dominated by talk about how the two surely must be the closest of friends, although Cato wonders if the two teens' apparent ease around each other isn't more due to the fact that they both look fairly drunk.

Finnick also poses with the rest of the Abernathys. In one shot, he has his arm slung around Ember's shoulder. It doesn't matter that she looks disgruntled, or that Finnick's other arm is slung around Cedric. Cato finds himself inexplicably jealous anyway.

* * *

 _June 66 ADD_

For all that Cato has learned to tune out most of what Capitol journalists report, since it's usually drivel, it turns out that Ashton Abernathy and Finnick Odair did end up as fast friends, after all.

Cato is carefully— _carefully_ —doing push-ups in front of the TV with Laelia perched on his back, cooing. Ashton and Finnick cackle as they tell an inappropriate joke. Lae is so little that she has no idea what they're saying, but Cato sees Ember covering Cedric's ears, throwing a dirty look at the older boys.

The age difference between Cato and Ves is comparable to the one between Ember and Cedric, but Cato cannot recall a single instance when his sister was as protective over him as Ember is over Cedric. Cato still hasn't forgiven Ty and Ves for that one time they tied him up. He can't imagine Ember doing that to her brother.

"You're lucky you have me," Cato tells Lae, who makes gurgling noises in response. _And Cedric is lucky he has Ember._

* * *

 _December 66 ADD_

It's become Cato's habit to perch Lae on his back for push-ups whenever he watches TV, to lessen the odds that Father will complain about him spending time with his sister or in front of the television. Not that Cato watches that much TV in the first place, but Father seems to frequently catch him on the occasions that he does.

Tiberius has been unbearable after Father recently announced the candidates for volunteers this year, and Tiberius wasn't on the list. His attempts at reasoning with and cajoling their father all fell through, so now Ty is just constantly yelling at him. Cato hopes that Laelia won't remember any of these shouting matches in the future. Their current argument is background noise to the TV as Cato works out, adapting to the seemingly exponentially increasing weight of his sister each day.

"You know that I've worked harder than anyone else in my year!"

"And it wasn't enough."

"But I'm your _son!_ Doesn't that mean anything?"

Ember looks like she loathes this year's Victor, Gloss from District 1, even more than she did Finnick Odair. Cato doesn't think he'd like Gloss either—the Victor looks as if he expects everyone around him to be kissing his feet.

"Being my son doesn't automatically entitle you to the Games. It means you have to work that much harder for it. Your peers at the Academy might look up to you because of your name, but the tributes from other Districts won't."

" _Are you wearing makeup?"_ Ember asks Gloss, wrinkling her nose.

Gloss looks as if he wants to tell off the nine-year-old, but he remembers the cameras in time. _"It's typical in One to wear it on camera,"_ he tells her condescendingly. _"You probably don't have the same means here in Twelve."_

"I don't give a damn what the tributes from other Districts think!"

"And that's one of the many reasons I advocated not sending you into the arena. Thinking like that will cause you let your guard down and be dishonorably killed. I refuse to allow any child of mine to commit such idiocy in front of the entire country."

" _Eh? Cashmere? That you?"_ Ashton Abernathy stumbles into view of the camera, and he squints. _"Oh, Gloss. Sorry, I mistook you for your sister. Must be all that makeup. She's volunteering this year, right?"_

"I would not! I would win! I _can_ win! I'm better than all the pathetic offerings the other Districts have!"

"You arrogant fool. I would sooner send your sister into the arena this year than you, and she's too young right now."

Gloss turns up his nose and moves to talk to someone else. Ashton smirks down at his sister, who wanly smiles back at him. The relationships between Ashton and his siblings have visibly deteriorated since his Games, but even now he's got Ember's back, and even now she can still manage half a smile for him.

"What's all this shouting about?" an irritated Vespasia asks, and Tiberius begins to scream at her instead.

Cato sighs and shuts off the TV then carefully deposits Laelia from his back. "Let's find somewhere quieter," he tells the drooling one-year-old.

* * *

 _June 67 ADD_

Tiberius sulks throughout the recap of the Reapings, muttering about how he could have taken any of the tributes. "Look at them," he sneers when they reach District 12. "I could snap their necks like toothpicks. Honestly, the Abernathys don't deserve their Victors' winnings. They've only produced one Victor in the last seventeen years, and that's because their son doesn't look like a skeleton."

No, now Ashton Abernathy looks like a ghost. An alcohol and drug-ridden ghost, if the rumors are correct.

The Abernathys, as usual, are onstage as District 12's sacrifices this year approach. Ashton is drugged out of his mind. Lorraine is absent, presumably with the other fifteen-year-olds, although Cato hasn't seen much of her on TV in recent years. Haymitch and Maysilee seem resigned, as usual. Cedric has a book on his lap, blissfully ignoring what's going on around him. And Ember gazes at the two tributes with profound pity.

But isn't it better this way? They look like they'll drop dead from starvation any minute. At least this way, they'll have a few days of pampering in the Capitol, and if they play it right, they can die quickly at the Cornucopia. But Cato doesn't voice these thoughts aloud, and even if he did, she wouldn't hear anyway.

* * *

 _December 67 ADD_

It turns out Cashmere won. Father is the only one bold enough to say to Tiberius's face that he wouldn't have beat her, so isn't he grateful now that he wasn't sent in?

Tiberius doesn't come home that night.

Onscreen, a very pregnant Maysilee Donner is urging Ember to stand next to Lorraine for some family shots. Cato remembers that Ember used to adore her sister, but recently, on the few occasions that their on camera together, Ember has been more prone to giving her the cold shoulder. Belatedly, Cato wonders how it is that Lorraine Abernathy has avoided getting Reaped like her brother, but he decides it's not important. It doesn't affect him.

But he reconsiders as he watches Ember rigidly standing beside an awkward Lorraine. Maybe he should care more?

Maybe.

No… No. It's of no consequence to him.

* * *

 _June 68 ADD_

It's his first Reaping, but Cato only feels a tingle of nervousness. It's far from his turn to enter, so there's no chance he's going to be a tribute. He knows he's good, but he still has a ways to go before he's true Victor material. And they've chosen amazing prospects as the volunteers this year.

Later during the recaps, Cato notices that the Abernathys have a new addition to their family. Ember seems to have grown attached to this sibling much more quickly than she did with Cedric. Lorraine only joins her family once the clan reaches the Capitol, and there's a tense moment when Ember vehemently refuses to hand over baby Summer to her other sister. Maysilee quickly defuses the situation, but the unease lingers.

Cato isn't too concerned—he thinks. It's normal for siblings to disagree. He fights with his all the time. And he's usually reluctant to let Ty or Ves hold Laelia when he's already got her. ( _He's_ her favorite, after all.) But a niggling voice in the back of his mind reminds him that his family and the Abernathys are far from the same.

As Ember turns her back on her sister, there is regret on her face, but it is far outweighed by her resentment. Cato misses that girl who smeared ice cream on Ashton, who stood up to Enobaria and Gloss, and who gushed over Cedric's precocious reading ability.

* * *

 _December 68 ADD_

The house is in an uproar, because Vespasia has just announced that she refuses to volunteer for the Games this year, the last ones for which she is eligible. Father is calm at first, likely believing he can talk Ves into changing her mind once he finds out her reasoning. But when Vespasia explains that it's because her boyfriend Sergius is probably going to be the male volunteer this year and she doesn't want to have to go in with him, Father snaps.

"Why would Ves give up being a Victor for a boy?" Cato asks his mother when it's only them in the living room.

"She loves him."

"Father says she's too young to be in love."

Mother sounds amused as she responds, "Everyone is capable of love from the moment they're born. It's not age that matters, or even the quantity of time you spend with the one you love, but the quality of time. And I believe the time that Vespasia has spent with Sergius has been of the caliber that allows her to truly fall in love. You'll understand one day, Cato." Then she looks up and says lightly, "Oh, look. It's that cute Abernathy girl you like."

Cato sputters, but the amusement never fades from Mother's face. They watch together as Ember Abernathy dances with her father.

* * *

 _June 69 ADD_

His father's ability to hold grudges is almost impressive. He was overruled by the rest of the council deciding on the volunteers concerning Vespasia; the others argued, rightly so, that they couldn't risk choosing Vespasia and the very real possibility she would refuse to volunteer, potentially allowing someone hopelessly unprepared to go in instead. Father then tried to nominate a boy other than Sergius as the male volunteer, but it was obvious that Sergius was the best option this year.

Sergius and his female counterpart both have excellent chances at winning. But Father refused to mentor, not wanting to give a single iota of help to Sergius—the reason for Vespasia's "silliness"—or the girl—Vespasia's "unworthy" replacement. Father is so steamed that from the moment Cato returns from the Reaping to the Cornucopia, he keeps Cato training non-stop.

"Your brother and sister have both embarrassed me," Father tells Cato in between brutal spars. "Don't you dare let me down."

Cato completely misses seeing Ember Abernathy on TV this summer. Not even Sergius winning and claiming yet another victory for District 2 alleviates his sulking.

* * *

 _December 69 ADD_

Ember is absent from the Victory Tour party in Twelve this year. Her parents explain to questioning reporters that she has the flu. Cato is not happy.

* * *

 _June 70 ADD_

It's Ember's first Reaping. Cato nervously watches the recap afterward, and when he realizes she wasn't picked, he almost sighs in relief. Her family looks like they've recently regained the ability to breathe, and although Ember smiles for the cameras when the Abernathys arrive in the Capitol, she looks like she's still trembling a little from her previous anxiety.

Cato realizes he really doesn't want to see Ember Abernathy in the Hunger Games. This conviction is reinforced when a dam in the arena bursts, and every tribute drowns except Annie Cresta from District 4. He doesn't know if Ember knows how to swim, and if she does, Cato doubts she would have been able to outlast Annie Cresta.

After the Games are over, as they have a mandatory review at the Academy, Cato realizes that throughout the course of the Games, his mind was constantly planting Ember into the arena: when the girl from One viciously killed one of the tributes from Six, when the girl from Nine was ambushed by the Careers, and of course, when water flooded the place and consumed all the remaining children.

Ember Abernathy, he realizes, is becoming a dangerous habit. Perhaps she already has become one, and he just hasn't realized it.

 _Why do you even care so much? It's not like you're ever going to meet her. And if you did, so what? It's not like anything would happen. Nothing could happen. Stop before this...whatever this is, gets out of hand._

After the review, a girl named Pia approaches him, and Cato smiles winningly at her.

* * *

 _December 70 ADD_

When the Victory Tour party in Twelve is being broadcast, Cato is busy training. Father approves.

Cato brutalizes the dummy until it's barely recognizable.

* * *

 _June 71 ADD_

Father is very proud of Cato's renewed dedication to training, in these last few crucial years before it's his own turn to volunteer. Laelia pesters him, begging to sit on his back while he does push-ups in front of the TV like they used to, but Cato claims he has to go to the Academy gym.

In the locker room, he hears some of the other boys talking about how Ember Abernathy is starting to become very pretty. He tenses as they make crude remarks, but he stays silent.

Still, he kicks all their asses on the training floor.

* * *

 _December 71 ADD_

He hears gossip about how Ember apparently got into an argument with this year's winner, Johanna Mason, during the Victory Tour. Cato tells himself he doesn't care as he flirts with an older girl named Victoria, who's supposed to volunteer this coming summer.

* * *

 _June 72 ADD_

It isn't Victoria but her male counterpart who wins. Cato wasn't with Victoria for very long—relationships at the Academy are seldom long-lasting, with few exceptions, like Ves and Sergius—but he mourns her all the same. He rather liked her. She had a fiery temper and a smile that reminded him of—

Not important.

Cato appreciates that District 2 can claim yet another victory, but he resents exactly who it was that brought it about. It caused a stir when it was announced that Nero—Cato's least favorite of his peers in his age group—would volunteer, because he's sixteen, like Cato. Apparently Nero was judged to be skilled enough that they waived the usual eighteen-year-old requirement.

"It was a gamble. There was a solid chance he wouldn't have made it out. I had my money on the girl," Father tells Cato. "Don't be jealous. I'm waiting until you're eighteen to give you the best odds. Not that you need it, but if you pick up something in the next two years that will help you, then all the better. And it's better to win at eighteen than sixteen, anyway. The anticipation builds up more."

It's the closest his father has ever come to giving him a compliment.

* * *

 _December 72 ADD_

After his Victory Tour, Nero makes a dramatic appearance at the Academy. Cato does his best to steer clear of the other boy's ego, but he still ends up overhearing Nero boasting about his travels throughout the country. And then, because his adoring crowd is mostly younger boys, Nero brags about all the girls he's met, in the Capitol and in the Districts.

Cato rolls his eyes when Nero declares how Ember Abernathy was totally into him when he was in Twelve. _She's got better taste than that._ Then Cato wonders why he cares.

* * *

 _June 73 ADD_

Cato agrees to watch the Reapings recap this year, because it's good to get an idea of what the other Districts are offering up for the Games. One and Two have the best tributes, as usual. Four's tributes have been declining in quality over the past decade—Finnick Odair was the last real good one, and Annie Cresta was a fluke more than anything. There's the occasional unexpected contender from the other Districts, a girl from Six with impressive muscles and a boy from Nine with a scheming, cunning glint in his eyes.

The girl from Twelve's name is not Ember Abernathy. Despite himself, Cato feels himself relaxing.

* * *

 _December 73 ADD_

The council has unanimously agreed to put Cato on the list of candidates. Father says if they voted today, he would be selected as volunteer. Cato works harder than ever to prove that he's worthy of being their choice. He resolutely turns his back on the TV as he passes the living room on his way in and out of the house, to and from the Academy gym. He can't afford any distractions beyond the occasional mindless hook-up.

If his latest fling has dark hair and blue eyes, he ignores that fact.

* * *

 _June 74 ADD_

Cato volunteers, and the crowd in Two cheers him on. On the train, he and Clove sit with their mentors to watch the recap and get a sense of their competition. It takes all his effort not to groan upon District 12. As soon as Cedric Abernathy is called up, Cato knows what's going to happen, regardless of whose name is on the girl's slip.

 _"I'm trying to teach him how to say my name, but he just babbles right now."_

There's no way she'll let her little brother go into the arena without her.

Cato doesn't even notice whose name is called when it's time for the girls. She volunteers, and that's all that matters. _You silly, stupid…_ He sighs mentally.

Despite himself, he notices that Ember Abernathy has indeed become quite pretty.

He doesn't know how to feel about Twelve's parade costumes. They were, in a word, dazzling. Part of him is annoyed, because their act was sure to have diverted some potential sponsors away from Two. But another part of him was just as awed as the Capitol audiences were, when he looked up at the big screens along the parade route and saw her and Cedric aflame.

Afterwards, he finally, _finally_ gets to lay eyes on her for the first time. Her, not a bunch of pixels on a screen designed to take on her appearance. _Her._ The makeup on her face is dramatic, but he mentally wipes it away. She and her brother have wandered nearby, to talk to one of the mentors from District 3.

Up close, she isn't just pretty. She is magnificent.

She lifts her head and looks around. Her gaze lands on him. Cato has seen bluer and prettier eyes, but without the camera filtering them, he realizes she doesn't need fake flames—she already has fire, and he realizes now that no lens has ever been able to adequately capture it.

 _Dangerous habits._ If Cato isn't careful, Ember Abernathy is going to distract him. He absolutely cannot afford any distractions, not when he's so close to achieving everything he's worked for since he was born.

He cannot be distracted by the girl who smeared ice cream all over her brother.

He cannot be distracted by the girl who sulked over a newborn Cedric.

He cannot be distracted by the girl who stuck out her tongue at Enobaria.

He cannot be distracted by the girl who wholeheartedly believed Ashton would win.

He cannot be distracted by the girl who helped make Gloss look silly on camera.

He cannot be distracted by the girl who pitied the District 12 tributes who came before her, knowing that someday she would be one of them.

He cannot be distracted by the girl whose relationship with her older sister has inexplicably broken.

He cannot be distracted by the girl who volunteered so she could protect her little brother.

He cannot be distracted by the Girl on Fire.

Cato's stare turns sharp, foreboding, dark. And Ember takes up the challenge, glaring back at him before dismissing him and turning her back on him. He watches as she and Cedric walk away. Realization sits heavily in his chest: for all that he can try, he will most certainly be distracted by Ember Abernathy.

She's going to be the death of him.

* * *

" _Something about first love defies duplication. Before it, your heart is blank. Unwritten. After, the walls are left inscribed and graffitied… No amount of scrubbing will purge the scrawled oaths and sketched images."_ -Tammara Webber

* * *

 **To continue this story, I recommend you go read The Sweetest Mockery. :)**

 **Thanks for reading, and please review! I've been contemplating creating a compilation of Little Cato Stories (as if I don't already have enough to work on, hahaha) if people are interested in reading more about a younger version of my Cato.**


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